Rogue's Philosophy Midterm
by SuperheroGirlX
Summary: Rogue is taking Philosophy at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters and it is time for midterms. Watch her paper evolve from a rough draft to final product with the help of peer feedback.
1. Rough Draft

Rogue

Philosophy

Professor Munroe

Midterm Rough Draft

March 13, 2010

A contemplation of the inner self as informed by my abilities

You can say so much more in your head than you can ever put into words. We simply lack the language to adequately express the depth of our emotions. We can do so much more than "love" and "hate" and "care," but those words are all that we have to express the range of our feelings. Some languages offer more options for expression than others, but in the end it all boils down to an inadequacy.

When I absorb the consciousness of another person, I am struck by this inadequacy. Before I developed my abilities I knew that people were more complicated than they appeared on the outside, but the difference between our internal and external selves is even more drastic than we can imagine. Consider yourself for a second. As soon as you start to think "who am I?" your mind is filled with words and it becomes impossible to define yourself to the full extent of your being. It is a paradox that I only came to understand after seeing the inner selves of many others.

It is extremely noisy in my head with all the other consciousnesses that live there now. They all cry out for understanding and acceptance and, while details may change from person to person, the overarching desire to be understood and accepted can be found in everyone. Mutants and humans are not so different on the inside in that respect. Even polar opposites like Bobby and John don't seem so different to me anymore. They are ice and fire, good and evil, even-tempered and hot-headed - opposites. At least, that's how they seem, but if you could know them like I do (in that indescribable, awful, they-are-in-my-head-forever way) you would see why they were friends in the first place. They both just want someone to care about them, to not hate them for what they are. They just go about handling those desires in different ways.

Cody - my almost-boyfriend, my first kiss, by first vicitm - wanted someone to understand him. Ironically, he thought I could be that person and now I understand him better than he probably understands himself. For a long time Cody was the only invading presence in my head, so I had a lot of time to study his consciousness once I had figured out what was his and what was mine. Luckily, because we are all generally the same on that base level, it doesn't matter if I can't weed out all the different thoughts from mine; they coincide nicely with my own. It's the details like "took piano lessons" (me), "played pee wee football" (Cody), and "lives in Boston" (Bobby) that I have to pick apart. Otherwise I might ask for a Jaguars jersey for my birthday or show up at Bobby's house for Christmas.


	2. Peer Editing Kitty

Peer Editing

By Kitty Pryde

I really like your ideas! They are really interesting, but I think you need to restructure them so they fit together better. You talk about the common desires of all people a little bit in each paragraph and I think if you pulled them all into one paragraph you could make that point stronger.

I don't think you're supposed to use "I" and "you" in a paper.

Maybe I missed it, but I don't think you have a thesis.

Conclusion?

Really good!


	3. Peer Editing Bobby

Peer Editing

By Bobby Drake

I'm nothing like John. Being friends with him was a bad idea from the start and I came to my senses. Take that part out.

What _do_ you want for your birthday?

Please don't show up at my house - my family would probably call the cops again.


	4. Peer Editing Piotr

Peer Editing

By Piotr Rasputin

I think that your thesis is that humans and mutants are not different on the inside. If so, you should move that thought closer to the beginning of your paper.

If your thesis is about the inadequacy of language, you should talk more about that in the rest of your paper. It is a good point.

All of your points are good, but they seem haphazard. If you rewrite your conclusion to include an outline of what you will talk about in the rest of your paper, it will bring the paper together better.

If you want me to read your conclusion when it is finished, feel free to slip it under my door or bring it to Danger Room training.


	5. Email Feedback from John

A/N: ff edited out my fake email addresses, so I've gotten rid of the fake s to appease the document uploader.

***

---Original Message---

From: runawayrogue

To: pyro_maniac

Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2010 8:58 AM Eastern Time

Subject: Philosophy Midterm

Hey John,

I know you don't really want to hear from me anymore, but I would really like you to look over my essay for philosophy. It's attached.

Thanks,

Rogue

***

---Original Message---

From: pyro_maniac

To: runawayrogue

Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2010 1:32 PM Eastern Time

Subject: RE: Philosophy Midterm

im nothing like bobby. if the only reason you sent this to me was to show me my "good" inner self or something stupid like that to try to get me back to school, you're pathetic.

***

---Original Message---

From: runawayrogue

To: pyro_maniac

Sent: Monday, March 14, 2010 12:01 AM Eastern Time

Subject: RE: Philosophy Midterm

I don't expect you to come back, idiot. I really just don't want to fail this class and since you're in my paper, I figured you could let me know if I'm completely off base.

***

---Original Message---

From: pyro_maniac

To: runawayrogue

Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2010 12:00 PM Eastern Time

Subject: RE: Philosophy Midterm

man, i don't know. have you forgotten how bad i am at peer editing? your punctuation looks good i guess.

i think you're wrong about me and bobby having anything in common, but if storm will give you an A for saying it, go for it.

you know, if you left school you wouldn't have to write midterms anymore...

***

From: runawayrogue

To: pyro_maniac

Sent: Monday, March 17, 2010 12:01 AM Eastern Time

Subject: RE: Philosophy Midterm

Thanks for the help John! And nice try, but I'm not leaving school, especially not for the Brotherhood. I know you haven't seen me in a while, so maybe you forgot the white stripes in my hair, but, yeah, that was the last time I was near the Brotherhood, so I'm good here.

Have fun polishing Magneto's helmut and blowing things up,

Rogue


	6. Midterm Outline

Rogue

Philosophy

Professor Munroe

Midterm Outline Revised

March 17, 2010

I. Introduction

Thesis: Humans and mutants are not as different as we appear. [Reword]

II. The inadequacy of language

III. Common desire to be understood and accepted

IV. Case study [Pick one! Cody vs. Magneto/human vs. mutant, Bobby vs. John, Logan and the difficulties in memory and personal understanding?]

V. Conclusion


	7. Final Midterm

A/N: You, reader, have the chance to play the part of Storm, if you wish. Feel free to give Rogue a grade and/or feedback in the comments.

Rogue

Philosophy

Professor Munroe

Midterm

March 25, 2010

The Inner Self

The belief that a war is brewing between humans and mutants has been the pervading fear in world culture, society, and politics since the discovery of mutant-kind. This kind of divisive thought has not only brought us to the brink of war on multiple occasions, but it also keeps us from seeing the similarities between all people, whether we have tails, wings, or untouchable skin. People like Magneto and the late Senator Robert Kelly think of themselves as polar opposites, because one could manipulate metal and one could not, but they were not as different as they appeared. Both were motivated in their anti-human or anti-mutant actions by fear, and a telepathic study of human and mutant thoughts, though unethical, would most likely reveal strikingly similar modes of thought between the two groups. In the absence of such a study, I will argue my hypothesis based on the understanding of the humans and mutants that I have absorbed through my abilities and the admitted motivations of those who prepare themselves for war.

The inner self is a complicated web of emotions, thoughts, and desires and each person, whether human or mutant, is unique in their mental make up. In contrast, language requires structure and, in fact, forces a structure on our otherwise unstructured inner selves. It is this inadequacy of language that poses the biggest problem in studying the similarities and differences of human and mutant minds. It is possible to express so much more in thought than can ever be put into words, simply because we lack the words. Sometimes words create barriers, as in the case of "mutant" and "human." Mutants and humans are essentially the same in biological respects, but there is no word to unite us in a common category (Grey, _Evolution and Mutation: The Dominant Species on the Planet_, 24). For example, "tigers" and "lions" are both "big cats." The closest word that we have to such an all-encompassing category is probably "people" – we are all people. However, that definition can vary depending on who uses the word and who they want to include in their definition. The limits of words can also show similarities where there was thought to be none. With his dying breath, Senator Kelly admitted that his anti-mutant actions were driven by fear (Transcript in Xavier Archives, _Senator Kelly_, 2). Fear of humans is, likewise, something that mutants live with every day. "I am afraid of you, because you can hurt me," is a sentence that could be said by a human or mutant. Mutants live in fear of anti-mutant mobs – humans with closed hearts and closed ears who, based solely on your extra appendages, consider you a threat, despite your panicked attempts to convince them otherwise. Humans live in fear of mutant abilities they cannot comprehend – the girl next door could walk through walls to rob them, the man across the bar could produce unseen knives from his hands to attack them, or they could be impaled by any number of metal objects that their mutant co-worker has decided to send their way. We fear what we will do to each other, because each party can be dangerous.

Fear is just one emotion that we all share and the underlying reasons or this fear, as discussed above, show a deeper connection between mutants and humans: thought patterns. Mutants do not think on a different wavelength than humans, as I am sure any telepath can confirm, nor do mutants and humans form different structures of thoughts in their heads. If humans had a completely different mode of thinking than mutants, it stands to reason that their thoughts would be unreadable by any mutant, telepathically or through absorption. When I absorb a consciousness, I cannot sense a difference between those that are human and those that are mutant. Our thoughts are informed by many things, but there is one common and prominent desire that holds the most influence on the way that mutants and humans think. We all cry out for understanding and acceptance and, while details may change from person to person, the overarching desire to be understood and accepted can be found in everyone.

These theories can be most readily seen in the cases of Cody and Magneto. Cody, a human from rural Mississippi, had the misfortune of giving me my first kiss just as my mutant powers emerged. The shock left him in a coma and, though I had absorbed his consciousness with that kiss, I first had to struggle to understand what was happening to me before I could process what I had stolen from his mind. When I was able to look back on Cody's fragmented memories, I found something remarkable. Cody was not very different from me, despite my mutated X-gene. His thoughts were filled with football and girls, which were not at all like mine, but the thought patterns and miss-matched memories were comfortingly similar to my own jumbled way of thinking. My Ellis Island run-in with Magneto unfortunately proved him to have the same jumbled mind, though his specific thoughts focused on fears of mutant prison camps and hopes for a mutant nation or safe-haven. I would like to be different in every respect from Magneto, but humans, X-Men, and Brotherhood all think the same. We are set apart and individualized by our specific thoughts, whether we think of the Jacksonville Jaguars, the grades we will receive in this class, or the mutant domination of the world.

Evolution has brought the world a new kind of person and we have divided ourselves along the lines of mutant and human. If a war is brewing, as both sides suggest, it cannot be because our differences are too great to overcome. If anything, it is because we are too similar. On the inside, fundamentally, and basically, mutants and humans are the same. We fear each other because of what we can do to each other, but if we would take the time to understand each other and accept each other, as we all want to be accepted, then the proposed war could be avoided.


End file.
